Does P2Pool have fees?

P2Pool has no pool fee for mining Monero: it does not take a percentage of your mining rewards. It also has no separate payout fee, because your rewards come directly from newly mined blocks rather than through a pool operator’s wallet. That does not mean mining is free—you still have electricity, equipment, and possibly service costs.

What “zero fees” actually means

A mining pool lets you combine your mining work with other miners so you can receive rewards more regularly. A traditional pool usually has an operator who collects rewards, tracks your balance, and pays you later. That operator may deduct a percentage for running the service.

P2Pool works differently. It is a decentralized pool, meaning there is no central operator holding everyone’s rewards.

For Monero P2Pool itself:

• Pool fee: 0%. P2Pool does not keep part of your reward.
• Separate payout fee: none. Your payment is included directly in the transaction that creates the block reward.
• Operator-controlled balance: none. You do not build up money in a pool account and then request a withdrawal.

These are features of P2Pool’s payment system, not a temporary promotional offer.

Why there is no payout fee

When P2Pool finds a Monero block, the block’s reward is divided among eligible miners. Your portion goes straight to your own wallet address.

Eligibility depends on your shares: proofs that your computer has contributed mining work. P2Pool records these on a separate shared record called a sidechain. You need a qualifying share within its recent payout window when a Monero block is found.

Because there is no later transfer from a pool wallet to your wallet, there is no separate payout transaction fee to deduct.

However, these are newly mined coins. They stay locked for 60 blocks, roughly two hours at Monero’s average block time of two minutes. That waiting period is a network rule, not a fee.

If you later send your XMR somewhere else, the normal Monero transaction fee still applies.

Costs that can still reduce what you keep

“Zero pool fees” describes P2Pool, not every part of your setup.

You may still pay for:

• Electricity and cooling. Your computer uses power while mining.
• Equipment. Hardware costs and wear affect whether mining makes financial sense.
• Node hosting. A node is software that checks and shares Monero’s blockchain records. Running your setup on rented hosting can cost money.
• Mining software donations. Some mining programs donate a small amount of mining time to their developers. For example, standard XMRig builds enable a developer donation by default. That is separate from P2Pool.

If you use a browser-mining service or another third-party service that says it connects to P2Pool, check its own terms. P2Pool being free does not prove that the service is free. It could charge separately or keep part of your mining output.

The bottom line

P2Pool charges neither a pool percentage nor a separate payout fee. You receive eligible rewards directly, without a pool operator holding your balance. Check your software’s donation settings, any third-party service charges, and your running costs before treating “0% fees” as “no costs.”